REGARDLESS of the often overblown ‘bitter rivalry’ between Brighton and Crystal Palace, many people have served both clubs with equal distinction, none more so than Martin Hinshelwood.
A player at Palace until injury curtailed his career when only 27, he went on to have a long career in the game, much of it with Brighton; more often in youth development as a coach and briefly as the no.1.
In the summer of 2002, his appointment as Albion boss 11 weeks after his former Palace teammate Peter Taylor had quit came as something of a surprise considering chairman Dick Knight declared he had interviewed seven candidates for the post.
In more recent times, Albion have had a Uruguayan, a Spaniard, a Finn and an Italian as head coach, back in 2002 it looked a strong possibility Knight might appoint wild-haired German coach Winfried Schafer, who had just managed Cameroon at the World Cup, but the chairman suspected his lack of command of English might be too big a hurdle to get over.
A terrific start
A clear favourite had been Steve Coppell but when the ex-Palace manager fell asleep during his conversation with Knight, apparently fatigued after a long-haul flight, the chairman was suitably unimpressed and, with time running out before the 2002-03 season got under way, Hinshelwood was appointed instead.
A 3-1 win away to Burnley looked like a terrific start but after a 0-0 home draw with Coventry, the side went on a disastrous 10-game losing spell (a 2-1 League Cup win over Exeter City the only bright spot amid the gloom).
Knight had already publicly signalled he would take decisive action after the sixth defeat in a row – a 4-2 home reverse to nine-man Gillingham!
He told the Argus: “If the team went ten matches losing every one, then you have got to do something about it.
“It’s very easy to criticise him (Hinshelwood). Obviously, he is a manager under pressure because we have just lost six games.
Getting his message across
“To suggest we should instantly sack him puts out the wrong message. Most people right now will think it was the wrong decision to appoint him, but I am not going to panic. I am going to monitor the situation.”
Of course, that monitoring didn’t take long to reach an inevitable conclusion – four more defeats and Hinshelwood was relieved of first team duties. He was made ‘director of football’ and Knight went back to Coppell to try to keep the Albion in the division. He very nearly managed it, too, but such a bad run of defeats had taken their toll on the points total.
As it happened, it wasn’t the first time Hinshelwood had found himself in the Albion hotseat: he was caretaker manager on three occasions: in 1993 (before Liam Brady’s appointment), in 2001 (after Micky Adams left for Leicester) and again in 2009, when he was in charge for a 4-4 FA Cup first round tie at Wycombe Wanderers after Russell Slade had been sacked and before Gus Poyet’s arrival.
When researching backgrounds of any number of players for this blog, Hinshelwood’s name is often cited as the one who either made the approach to bring them to Brighton or who was a major influence in their development.
For example, when Hinshelwood first joined the Albion in 1987, from Chelsea, he was instrumental in bringing from Stamford Bridge to the Goldstone Doug Rougvie and Keith Dublin, who both played their part in getting Albion promoted straight back to the second tier in 1988.
Hinshelwood had been reserve team manager at Chelsea for two years during the managerial reign of John Hollins, after first team coach Ernie Walley, his former Palace youth team coach, put in a good word for him.
His long association with Brighton began with a ‘phone call to Barry Lloyd to congratulate him on landing the Albion manager’s job. The former Fulham captain asked Hinshelwood to join him at the Goldstone – and he stayed for the next six and a half years.
He returned to the club in the summer of 1998, when Brian Horton had taken over, and was appointed Director of Youth, with Dean Wilkins as youth team coach.
Pensive Hinsh
An interview with the matchday programme pointed out that across the following 14 years, he oversaw a youth system that produced 31 players who made it through to the first team, although he said such success had very much been a team effort, name-checking Wilkins, centre of excellence managers Vic Bragg and John Lambert, scouting chief Mark Hendon and physio Kim Eaton.
Dean Hammond, Adam Hinshelwood, Adam Virgo, Adam El-Abd, Dean Cox, Jake Robinson, Dan Harding and later Lewis Dunk, Jake Forster-Caskey and Solly March all graduated from that period. “To have been a part of their journeys makes me immensely proud,” he said.
Hinshelwood left the Albion for a second time in 2012 and worked variously for Crawley, Portsmouth, Stoke City and Lewes. He returned to the Seagulls once again when the former head of academy recruitment at Stoke, Dave Wright, who had joined Brighton in 2019, invited him to take on a role of scouting 13 to 16-year-olds.
When Hinshelwood himself was that age, he had visions of following in his dad Wally’s footsteps. He had been a professional for Fulham, Chelsea, Reading, Bristol City and Newport County, and, although born in Reading (on 16 June 1953), young Martin had become accustomed to an unsettled childhood, moving around the country to wherever dad’s next club took him.
The family finally settled in New Addington, near Croydon, with Wally playing non-league football in Kent and Martin played representative football for Dover Under 15s, Croydon Boys and Surrey Under 16s.
He was on schoolboy terms at Fulham when Bobby Robson was manager but they didn’t think he would make it. It was while he was playing for Surrey Schools that former Spurs and Palace manager Arthur Rowe scouted him for Palace and he was taken on as an apprentice in 1969.
Hinshelwood playing for Palace, up against Stoke’s George Eastham
Hinshelwood was given his first team debut by Bert Head in 1972. He played in midfield in the old First Division for a dozen matches but the side were relegated in his first season. The flamboyant fedora-wearing Malcolm Allison took over as manager and he was later replaced by Terry Venables.
Martin’s younger brother Paul (Jack Hinshelwood’s granddad) played in the same side at full-back and the brothers were alongside the likes of Kenny Samson and Peter Taylor. In 1975-76, when still a Third Division side, they shook the football world by making it to the semi-finals of the FA Cup, where they lost to eventual winners Southampton, although Martin missed the game through a right knee injury. It eventually forced him to quit playing in 1978, after he’d made 85 appearances for Palace in five years.
Venables appointed him as youth team coach at Selhurst Park and although he spent 18 months as player-manager of non-league Leatherhead, he then resumed his Palace role under Steve Kember.
Alan Mullery dispensed with Hinshelwood’s services during his brief managerial reign at Palace but he kept his hand in at coaching with non-league clubs Kingstonian, Barking and Dorking.
Selsey-based Hinshelwood then had a spell as manager of Littlehampton before the Chelsea job came up.
IT WAS a team effort that saw Brighton promoted to the Premier League in 2017 but one of the key components of that achievement was winger Anthony Knockaert.
Centre-forward Glenn Murray netted 23 times but the tricky, nimble-footed Frenchman wasn’t far behind with an impressive 15 goals and was rightly rewarded with both the Championship Player of the Year award and the Albion Player of the Season accolade.
When he announced his retirement from the game at the age of 32 in July 2024, he described his time with the Seagulls as the best years of his career.
He had previously been part of Leicester City’s rise from the Championship in 2014 and, although he was a less regular starter in his first season at Fulham, he was also part of Scott Parker’s play-off winning squad that won promotion back to the Premier League in August 2020.
Knockaert’s mazy dribbles along the right wing often had Albion fans on the edge of their seats and, invariably, in an around the penalty area, he would cut back onto his left foot and let fly with a goalbound shot.
When he left the club for Fulham, Albion chairman Tony Bloom said: “Anthony will always have a very special place in the history books of our club.
“He’s provided some wonderful moments, and on behalf of all Albion fans, I would like to thank him for the memories.”
Perhaps it was fitting that his last goal for the Seagulls was one of the most spectacular – and was delivered in a 2-1 win against arch rivals Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park in March 2019.
Some observers felt Knockaert was lucky still to be on the pitch after he escaped with just a booking only 28 seconds into the match for cleaning out Palace captain Luka Milivojevic.
With the game level at 1-1, and 16 minutes of the match remaining, Sky Sports reporter Richard Morgan noted: “Brighton boss Chris Hughton was preparing to bring Knockaert off, but before the substitution could be made, the Frenchman put his team back ahead with a goal-of-the-season contender.
“The winger picked up possession down the right, before cutting inside and curling a sublime left-footed shot into the top corner of the net as Brighton scored from outside the area for the first time in the league this season.”
It certainly wasn’t the first time Knockaert had made the headlines for the Seagulls; his two goals at Molineux in a 2-0 win over Wolves in April 2017 virtually guaranteed Albion’s promotion from the Championship just ahead of the decisive win at home to Wigan and was accompanied by BBC Radio Sussex reporter Johnny Cantor’s memorable “simply box office” commentary on the Frenchman’s performance.
Born in Roubaix in north east France on 20 November 1991, Knockaert’s early football development happened at several clubs close to or over the Belgian border: Wasquehal (1997-99), Leers (1999-2001), Lens (2001-04), Mouscron (2004-07) and Lesquin (2007-09).
It took a move to Brittany, and Guingamp, to begin his professional career in 2009 and he helped the club win promotion from the third to the second tier of French football in 2011. Leicester paid a reported £750,000 for his services in the summer of 2012.
He revealed a flavour of his passion for the game in a City November 2013 matchday programme: “When I play for a team, I want to be able to give everything and that’s important if you want to forge a connection with the fans and everybody at a club. That’s my philosophy.
“Since I have come to Leicester, the staff, players and fans have been brilliant. Everyone in Leicester has been great with me and as a result I have been very happy.
“That’s why I give everything I have on the pitch, because simply, I love Leicester.”
Although Knockaert’s late goal against Nottingham Forest on the last day of the 2012-13 season had lifted City from eighth in the table into the last play-off spot, agony was to follow in the semi-finals.
While Brighton fans were enduring their own Championship play-off semi-final heartbreak at the hands of Crystal Palace, so the Foxes saw their hoped-for return to the Premier League cruelly taken away – and Knockaert was the fall guy.
With City’s play-off semi-final against Watford finely poised at 2-2, Leicester were awarded an injury time penalty. Knockaert stepped up to take it but the kick was saved by Manuel Almunia, the rebound shot then hit him in the chest, and the ball went straight down the other end where Troy Deeney buried a winner for the Hornets. But Foxes follower Jake Lawson of fosseposse.sbnation.com was keen to point out in 2017: “There’s so much more to the Frenchman’s time with Leicester than that.
“We signed him as a relatively unknown 21-year-old from Ligue 2 side Guingamp and he went straight into the side, featuring in 42 league matches during the 2012-13 campaign.
“He scored eight goals in the Championship and they weren’t exactly tap-ins, either. His brace against Huddersfield was, to my untrained eye, the most impressive pair of goals scored by any City player over the last 20 years.”
Regardless of that agonising play-off outcome, he observed: “Without the French under 21 international’s impressive range of passing, magical dribbling, and ability to score from (literally) any angle, we wouldn’t have even been in the hunt.”
Knockaert played in 42 league matches and scored five times in 2013-14, when Leicester romped to the Championship title, finishing with 102 points.
“Every time he was on the ball, you had the sense that something special could happen,” said Lawson. “It wasn’t always good, but it was always special.”
Unfortunately for Knockaert, Leicester discovered another winger from France’s Ligue 2. His name was Riyad Mahrez and boss Nigel Pearson picked the Algerian ahead of Knockaert, who only made five first team starts plus six appearances off the bench in the 2014-15 Premier League season.
When he left Leicester in June 2015, he’d made 82 starts and 24 substitute appearances for the Foxes and scored 13 goals.
He joined Belgian Pro League side Standard Liege on a free transfer, signing a four-year contract. But he ended up playing only 20 matches for Liege in the first half of the 2015-16 season before the Albion took him back to the UK.
Albion boss Hughton said at the time: “Once I knew that there was a possibility that Anthony was available, he was somebody I was interested in bringing to the club for a number of reasons.
“He is a different type of player to the wide players we have here. He can play in three positions – on the left, off the front man, but predominantly in his previous time here in England he played on the right side.
“He is a very good technical, offensive player and has experience of playing in the Championship in a team who played a 4-4-2 system and he is used to having a responsibility in the wide areas. But mostly it is what he can bring us offensively in terms of goals and assists.”
Knockaert obviously bought in to the manager’s way of playing, saying in a matchday programme interview: “When you are a creative player everyone expects the best from you in every game. You are always trying a lot of things: to dribble, to score goals, to give assists and to work hard defensively for the team.
“I try to give all of these things to the team – as do all the wingers at the club – and it’s a big responsibility on the pitch for us. However, it’s not always easy to do everything right.”
Explaining his occasional shows of frustration, he said: “It’s because I love football so much. I’ve always been like this and every game I play is a fight, and I give everything I’ve got.”
Promotion in 2017 was extra special for Knockaert because it was a promise he’d made to his dad, Patrick, who died of cancer aged 63 in the autumn of 2016. The player was grateful for the way in which he was supported in his bereavement by the management and his teammates.
Brighton players held aloft absent Knockaert’s shirt in tribute as they celebrated Steve Sidwell’s halfway line wonder goal at Bristol City. Hughton and several players attended his father’s funeral in France.
Thankfully it was a far happier Knockaert at the forefront of the celebrations when Albion achieved the promotion dream against Wigan at the Amex the following April.
Hopes of hitting the ground running in Albion’s debut season in the Premier League were dealt something of a blow when he sustained ankle ligament damage in a pre-season friendly against Fortuna Dusseldorf.
It was eight games before there was a glimpse of his return to fitness when Everton were the visitors. Man-of-the-match Knockaert put Albion ahead on 82 minutes but Everton took home a somewhat fortuitous point when Wayne Rooney equalised from the penalty spot.
“His trademark runs from deep and balls into the box led the Toffees’ defence a merry dance,” the matchday programme reported. As to the goal, Knockaert said: “It was a special moment for me. Obviously I thought about my dad because I know he would have loved to have seen that. It was really emotional.”
Sadly, apart from his father’s early death, Knockaert’s brother Steve had died of a heart attack aged 28 in 2010 and in 2018 the player revealed he’d had counselling for depression which had been compounded by the break-up of his marriage, that had led to limited contact with his four-year-old son Ilyan.
In an excellent piece of analysis after Albion’s new regime under Graham Potter allowed Knockaert to join Fulham on loan at the start of the 2019-20 season, The Athletic’s Andy Naylor spelled out the conundrum the club faced with a player who perhaps wore his heart on his sleeve a little too much.
Naylor noted that apart from Knockaert’s capacity to thrill supporters on the pitch, his series of personal misfortunes also tugged at their hearts.
Nonetheless, although he scored 20 goals in 64 Championship games for Brighton, he only registered five in 63 at the higher level.
In the harsh world of football, as Knockaert had previously experienced with the arrival of Mahrez at Leicester, it was Brighton’s signing of Leandro Trossard from Genk that finally signalled the Frenchman’s farewell to Sussex.
Believing Knockaert “too good for the Championship and good enough for the Premier League” Naylor said that winner at Palace and a man-of-the-match performance in the 2019 FA Cup semi-final defeat to Manchester City were certainly highlights. But…
“On the flip side, such good days are not frequent enough for Knockaert to be regarded as dependable, both in terms of his contribution to the team and the Gallic temperament which has let the side down.
“Displays of dissent were familiar if he got substituted or games were not going according to plan,” he said.
Naylor also referred to two sendings off – away to Everton for a jump tackle on Leighton Baines from a throw-in and “an outrageous lunging tackle” on Bournemouth’s Adam Smith when Albion were 2-0 down at home and ended up losing 5-0. Match of the Day pundit Danny Murphy slammed the player, saying: “It’s dangerous and irresponsible and more importantly he’s let everyone down.”
Naylor concluded that the switch to London for a fee of up to £15 million – about four times what they paid for him – would be best for both club and player.
Fulham exercised their option to buy Knockaertpermanently in July 2020 and he agreed a three-year contract, although most of that time ended up being spent away from Craven Cottage on loan.
The signing certainly baffled Fulham fans, such as Marco De Novellis who wrote on fulhamish.co.uk: “The Knockaert signing strikes me as the decision of an out-of-touch director of football operations attuned more to the past reputation of players than the reality on the pitch.”
Another correspondent, Hugo Lloyd, on the same site, reckoned Knockaert had “hugely divided opinion” and said: “Aged 27 he should be coming into his prime, but he looks a shell of his former self.”
Lloyd reckoned the sort of flair Knockaert had expressed playing for Brighton was stifled by Scott Parker’s emphasis on possession. “Parker needs to show faith in Knockaert and let him play in the manner that has allowed him such success in previous seasons as it could be the perfect injection of risk needed in our style of play, rather than taking this out and keeping the ball for the sake of it,” he wrote. “He clearly has ability but has had to completely change his style of play which cannot be easy.
“Given time, Knockaert’s magic could be exactly what we need to rise up the table, whereas at the moment it seems a case of trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.”
By the season’s end, Knockaert had made 35 starts and 11 sub appearances in all competitions, scoring just four goals, as Fulham gained promotion back to the Premier League via a play-off final win over Brentford.
Although the club was back amongst the elite, Knockaert was frozen out and in October 2020 was instead reunited with former Albion boss Hughton at Championship side Nottingham Forest. He made 33 appearances and scored three times for Forest where he also teamed up with two former Seagulls teammates in Gaetan Bong and Murray.
The following season began with Knockaert joining Greek Super League side Volos but he was back in the UK the following January, signing on loan at Huddersfield Town.
Amid a fair degree of hype, Town’s head of football operations Leigh Bromby told the club website: “Anthony possesses the type of individual talent that is a rare find, so we’re absolutely delighted to have him with us for the remainder of the season.
“He has a proven track record at this level and a real hunger to contribute in England again, so that ticks a lot of boxes for us.
“This is the type of signing we hope can give the club a real lift both on and off the field, with his high profile earned through countless memorable goals and performances that we hope will continue with our shirt on his back.
“He gives us something completely different in the final third whilst complimenting who we are and what we want to be as a team, so there is a real excitement to see how he can contribute between now and the end of the season.”
Sadly, against a backdrop of managerial upheaval, he only managed two starts and three appearances off the bench as Town narrowly avoided dropping out of the Championship.
In September 2023, Knockaert agreed to terminate his Fulham contract and he moved back close to his birthplace, signing for Ligue 2 side Valenciennes FC. He featured in 21 matches but couldn’t prevent the side from being relegated to France’s third tier.
Although he announced his decision to retire from professional football in July 2024, he didn’t plan to hang up his boots altogether and getfootballnewsbene.com reported that he would turn out in the lower reaches of Belgian football with Mouscron, where he’d once played as a boy.
DEAN WILKINS might have lived in the shadow of his more famous elder England international brother Ray but he certainly carved out his own footballing history, much of it with Brighton.
Albion fans of a certain vintage will never forget the sumptuous left-footed free-kick bouffant-haired captain Wilkins scored past Phil Parkes at the Goldstone Ground which edged the Seagulls into the second-tier play-offs in 1991.
Supporters from the mid-noughties era would only recall the balding boss of a mid-table League One outfit at Withdean comprising mainly home-grown players who Wilkins had brought through from his days coaching the youth team.
After Dick Knight somewhat unceremoniously brought back Micky Adams over Wilkins’ head in 2008, he quit the club rather than stay on playing second fiddle and subsequently went west to Southampton where he worked under Alan Pardew and his successor Nigel Adkins as well as taking caretaker charge of the Saints in between the two reigns.
Wilkins’ initial association with the Seagulls went back to 1983, when Jimmy Melia brought him to the south coast from Queens Park Rangers shortly after Albion’s FA Cup final appearances at Wembley.
Melia’s successor Chris Cattlin only gave him two starts back then and although he pondered a move to Leyton Orient, where he’d had 10 matches on loan, he opted to accept to try his luck in Holland when his Dutch Albion teammate Hans Kraay set him up with a move to PEC Zwolle. Playing against the likes of Johann Cruyff, Marco Van Basten and Ruud Gullit proved to be quite the footballing education for Wilkins.
Wilkins in the thick of it in Dutch football for PEC Zwolle
After two years in the Netherlands, 25-year-old Wilkins rejoined the relegated Seagulls in the summer of 1987 as the club prepared for life back in the old Third Division under Barry Lloyd.
Relegation had led to the sale for more than £400,000 of star assets Danny Wilson, Terry Connor and Eric Young but more modest funds were allocated to manager Lloyd for replacements: £10,000 for Wilkins, £50,000 for Doug Rougvie, who signed from Chelsea and was appointed captain, Garry Nelson, a £72,500 buy from Plymouth and Kevin Bremner, who cost £65,000 from Reading. Midfield enforcer Mike Trusson was a free transfer.
The refreshed squad ended up earning a swift return to the second tier courtesy of a memorable last day 2-1 win over Bristol Rovers at the Goldstone.
At the higher level, Wilkins had the third highest appearances (40 + two as sub) as Albion finished just below halfway in the table. The following season Wilkins was appointed captain and was ever-present as Albion made it to the divisional play-off final against Notts County at Wembley, having made it to the semi-final v Millwall courtesy of the aforementioned spectacular free kick v Ipswich.
Wilkins scored again at Wembley but it turned out only to be a consolation as the Seagulls succumbed 3-1 to Neil Warnock’s side.
As the 1992-93 season got underway, Wilkins, having just turned 30, was the first matchday programme profile candidate for the opening home game against Bolton Wanderers (a 2-1 win) when he revealed the play-off final defeat had been “the biggest disappointment of my career”.
The 1993-94 season was a write-off from October onwards when he damaged the medial ligaments in both his knees after catching both sets of studs in the soft ground at home against Exeter City.
Although injury plagued much of the time during Liam Brady’s reign as manager, the Irishman acknowledged his ability saying: “He is a very fine footballer and a tremendous passer of the ball and he possesses a great shot.”
Ahead of the start of the 1995-96 season, Wilkins was granted a testimonial game against his former club QPR, managed at the time by big brother Ray. But at the end of the season, when the Seagulls were relegated to the basement division, he was one of six players given a free transfer.
Born in Hillingdon on 12 July 1962, Wilkins couldn’t have wished for a more football-oriented family. Dad George had played for Brentford, Leeds, Nottingham Forest and Hearts and appeared at Wembley in the first wartime FA Cup final. While Ray was the brother who stole the limelight, Graham and Steve also started out at Chelsea.
In spite of those older brothers who also made it as professionals, Wilkins attributed his development at QPR, who he joined straight from school as an apprentice in 1978, to youth coach John Collins (who older fans will remember was Brighton’s first team coach under Mike Bailey).
He made seven first team appearances for Rangers, his debut being as a substitute for Glenn Roeder in a 0-0 draw with Grimsby Town on 1 November 1980. After joining the Albion in August 1983, he had to wait until 10 December that year to make his debut, in a 0-0 draw at Middlesbrough, in place of the absent Tony Grealish. He started at home to Newcastle a week later (a 1-0 defeat), this time taking the midfield spot of injured Jimmy Case.
Perhaps the writing was on the wall when Cattlin secured the services of Wilson from Nottingham Forest, initially on loan, and although Wilkins had a third first team outing in a 2-0 FA Cup third round win at home to Swansea City, boss Cattlin didn’t pick him again. Instead, he joined Orient on loan in March 1984.
A long career in coaching began when Wilkins was brought back to the Albion in 1998 by another ex-skipper, Brian Horton, who had taken over as manager. With Martin Hinshelwood as director of a new youth set-up, Wilkins was appointed the youth coach – a position he held for the following eight years.
Return to the Albion as youth coach
His charges won 4-1 against Cambridge United in his first match, with goals from Duncan McArthur, Danny Marney and Scott Ramsay (two).
That backroom role continued as managers came and went over the following years during which a growing number of youth team products made it through to the first team: people like Dan Harding and Adam Virgo and later Adam Hinshelwood, Joel Lynch, Dean Hammond and Adam El-Abd.
At the start of the 2006-07 season, with Albion back in the third tier after punching above their weight in the Championship for two seasons, Wilkins was rewarded for his achievements with the youth team with promotion to first team coach under Mark McGhee.
By then, more of the youngsters he’d helped to develop were in or getting close to the first team, for example Dean Cox, Jake Robinson, Joe Gatting and Chris McPhee.
After an indifferent start to the season – three wins, three defeats and a draw – Knight decided to axe McGhee and loyal lieutenant Bob Booker and to hand the reins to Wilkins with Dean White as his deputy. Wilkins later brought in his old teammate Ian Chapman as first team coach.
Into the manager’s chair
Tommy Elphick, Tommy Fraser and Sam Rents were other former youth team players who stepped up to the first team. But, over time, it became apparent Knight and Wilkins were not on the same page: the young manager didn’t agree with the chairman that more experienced players were needed rather than relying too much on the youth graduates.
Indeed, in his autobiography Mad Man: From the Gutter to the Stars (Vision Sports Publishing, 2013), Knight said Wilkins hadn’t bothered to travel with him to watch Glenn Murray or Steve Thomson, who were added to the squad, and he was taking the side of certain players in contract negotiations with the chairman.
“In my opinion, his man-management skills were lacking, which was why I made the decision to remove him from the manager’s job,” he said. It didn’t help Wilkins’ cause when midfielder Paul Reid went public to criticise his man-management too.
Knight felt although Wilkins hadn’t sufficiently nailed the no.1 job, he could still be effective as a coach, working under Micky Adams. The pair had previously got on well, with Adams saying in his autobiography, My Life in Football (Biteback Publishing, 2017) how Wilkins had been “one of my best mates”.
But Adams said: “He thought I had stitched him up. I told him that I wanted him to stay. We talked it through and, at the end of the meeting, we seemed to have agreed on the way forward.
“I thought I’d reassured him enough for him to believe he should stay on. But he declined the invitation. He obviously wasn’t happy and attacked me verbally.
“I did have to remind him about the hypocrisy of a member of the Wilkins family having a dig at me, particularly when his older brother had taken my first job at Fulham.
“We don’t speak now which is a regret because he was a good mate and one of the few people I felt I could talk to and confide in.”
Youth coach
Knight knew his decision to sack the manager would not be popular with fans who only remembered the good times, but he pointed out they weren’t aware of the poor relationship he had with some first team players.
Knight described in his book how a torrent of “colourful language” poured out from Wilkins when he was called in and informed of the decision in a meeting with the chairman and director Martin Perry.
“He didn’t take it at all well, although I suppose he felt he was fully justified,” wrote Knight. “He was fuming after what was obviously a big blow to his pride.”
Reporter Andy Naylor perhaps summed up the situation best in The Argus. “The sadness of Wilkins’ departure was that Albion lost not a manager, but a gifted coach,” he said. “Wilkins was not cut out for management.”
Saints coach
One year on, shortly after Alan Pardew took over as manager at League One Southampton, he appointed Wilkins as his assistant. They were joined by Wally Downes (Steve Coppell’s former assistant at Reading) as first team coach and Stuart Murdoch as goalkeeping coach.
Saints were rebuilding having been relegated from the Championship the previous season and began the campaign with a 10-point penalty, having gone into administration. The club had been on the brink of going out of business until Swiss businessman Markus Liebherr took them over.
A seventh place finish (seven points off the play-offs because of the deduction) meant another season in League One and the following campaign had only just got under way when Pardew, Downes and Murdoch were sacked. Wilkins was put in caretaker charge for two matches and then retained when Nigel Adkins, assisted by ex-Seagull Andy Crosby, was appointed manager.
It was the beginning of an association that also saw the trio work together at Reading (2013-14) and Sheffield United (2015-16).
Adkins, Crosby and Wilkins were in tandem as the Saints gained back-to-back promotions, going from League One runners up to Gus Poyet’s Brighton in 2011, straight through the Championship to the Premier League. But they only had half a season at the elite level before the axe fell and Mauricio Pochettino took over.
When the trio were reunited at Reading, Wilkins, by then 50, gave an exclusive interview to the local Reading Chronicle, in which he said: “This pre-season has given me time to learn about the characters of the players we’ve got at Reading and find out what makes them tick.
At Reading with Crosby and Adkins
“It’s my job then to make sure every player maximises his potential. That’s what I see my role as, to bring out the very best of them from now on and make them strive to attain new levels of performance.
“I will always keep working toward that goal. If we can do that with every individual and get maximum performances out of them, I believe we will be in for a great season.
“We’re back together now and it’s going fantastically well. I have loved every minute of it. I’m used to working with Nigel and Andy and we are carrying out similar work to what we’ve done in the past.”
The Royals finished seventh, a point behind Brighton, who qualified for the play-offs, and the trio were dismissed five months into the following season immediately following a 6-1 thrashing away to Birmingham City.
Six months later the trio were back in work, this time at League One Sheffield United, but come the end of the 2015-16 season, after the Blades had finished in their lowest league position since 1983, they were shown the door.
Between January 2018 and July 2019, Wilkins worked for the Premier League assessing and reporting on the accuracy, consistency, management and decision-making of match officials.
In the summer 0f 2019, he was appointed Head of Coaching at Crystal Palace’s academy, a job he held for 15 months.
A return to involvement with first team football was presented by his former Albion player Alex Revell, who’d been appointed manager of League Two Stevenage Borough. Glad to support and mentor Revell in his first managerial post, Wilkins spent a year as assistant manager at the Lamex Stadium.
BOURNEMOUTH-BORN Steve Gritt is synonymous with Brighton & Hove Albion’s darkest hour because he was in the almost scalding managerial hotseat at the time the club nearly went out of the league.
The mastermind behind Albion’s ‘Great Escape’ in 1997 grew up in the Dorset coastal resort and began his footballing career with his local club in the 1970s. He later worked as the Cherries chief scout, although, apart from etching his part in Brighton’s footballing folklore, most of his more memorable days in the game came at Charlton Athletic.
Somehow, against all the odds, he managed to keep the Seagulls up when most doomsters could only see the club losing its status – and possibly going out of business as a result.
Gritt, who had been out of work for 18 months having been cast adrift by a new chairman at Charlton, took over from the beleaguered Jimmy Case in December 1996 with Albion 12 points adrift at the bottom of the fourth tier.
“I was delighted when Brighton offered me the chance to return,” he wrote in his matchday programme notes. “I know a lot of people were calling it the ‘worst job in football’ but when you love football as I do then you don’t always see things that way.”
Gritt was certainly an old hand when it came to football’s vicissitudes: rejected by AFC Bournemouth as a teenager, he went on to enjoy the elation of promotion as well as enduring the despair of relegation during his time with the Addicks.
Quite what would have become of Albion if they’d lost their place in the league is now only speculation – thankfully it wasn’t a bridge Gritt had to cross.
“I’d spent 18 years at Charlton as player and joint-manager, with just six months away from it, at Walsall. Then a new chairman, Richard Murray, came in and he didn’t like the joint-manager situation, so he put Alan Curbishley in sole charge, and I left,” Gritt explained.
Without a full-time job in the game, he stayed in touch by doing some scouting work for Tony Pulis at Gillingham, Brian Flynn at Wrexham and a couple of stints for West Brom. He even pulled his boots back on to play for Welling and Tooting & Mitcham.
Eager not to continue to have to queue at the benefit office for dole money, he applied for the vacant Albion manager’s job and got it after an interview in Crewe with the despised chairman Bill Archer and his ‘henchman’ chief executive David Bellotti.
“I knew very little about what was going on at the club,” Gritt told Roy Chuter in a retrospective programme piece. “I’d read bits in the papers, but my only interest was in the football. I wasn’t going to get involved.
“The place was very low. Some of the senior players filled me in on what was happening. In my first few days, there was graffiti on the walls saying I was a stooge, a whistle protest, a fan chained himself to the goal at half-time at my first match – that bothered me as we were winning at the time and went on to beat Hull 3-0.
“Then the next week I had to go onto the pitch with a megaphone at Leyton Orient to get the supporters to leave after the match – and they already hated me! I thought ‘What is going on?’ but my job was to get some sunshine back into the fans’ Saturday afternoons.”
After familiarising himself with the issues at a fans’ forum – “It helped me understand that the fans had to do what they had to do” – he devoted himself to improving the football and although the budget was tight, brought in the experienced defender John Humphrey and Robbie Reinelt, who would go on to score one of the most crucial goals in Albion’s history.
Puzzled by the plight of a side that contained good players in the likes of Craig Maskell, Ian Baird and Paul McDonald, Gritt maintained: “I never thought we’d go down.”
He recalled: “There was such a lot of experience. If I could organise them, we’d have a chance.”
Looking back years later
Ultimately, the club’s fate was decided in the final two games of the season – at home to Doncaster Rovers and away to Hereford United.
“We knew we could beat Doncaster,” he said. “There was a big crowd and a tremendous atmosphere – very tense. Maybe that got to the players – we didn’t play as well as we had done, but once we were 1-0 up, we weren’t going to get beat. We had a great defence.”
Gritt recalled: “I was beginning to think that there wasn’t going to be any goals in the game as there hadn’t been too many chances during the game that I can remember.
“Suddenly we had a corner from which Mark Morris eventually hit the bar, confirming my thoughts. But suddenly the ball fell to Stuart (Storer) who struck it into the net to spark off unbelievable celebrations on the pitch, off the pitch and in the dugout.
“Could we now keep our composure and see the game out to a memorable 1 nil win? We did! What a day and what a memory.”
And so to Hereford, who needed to win to avoid dropping out of the league. Albion only needed a draw to stay up. Everyone knows the story. A goal down at half-time when Kerry Mayo put through his own net, Gritt reminded the players at half-time that their jobs were on the line.
Relief at Hereford
He sent on Reinelt as a sub and in the 62nd minute he slotted a second half equaliser to send the Albion faithful into ecstasy and condemn the Bulls to their fate.
“I think if it had been Brighton, we could have faded into obscurity,” he said. “Most of the players would have left, and I don’t think we could have coped.”
As things subsequently transpired, it was Gritt who would soon be on his way.
It’s perhaps a bit of a cliché to say there is no sentiment in football but when Gritt’s side had managed only four league wins up to February in the 1997-98 season, and were second bottom of the table, chairman Dick Knight wielded the axe.
“No one who cares about the Albion will forget Steve’s tremendous contribution to our survival last season,” said Knight. “This season, given our difficult circumstances, feasibly we were only seeking to preserve our league status by a safe margin, but to date that comfort zone has eluded us.”
Thankfully you can’t keep a good man down for long, though, and within two weeks of getting the Brighton bullet, Gritt was back in the saddle as assistant manager to Billy Bonds at Millwall.
Although Bonds was sacked by the Lions only six weeks after Gritt’s arrival, successors Keith Stevens and Alan McLeary kept him on, working with the reserve team. Then Mark McGhee took charge and got Gritt back involved with the first team to take on organisational work such as set plays.
After McGhee took charge at Brighton, Gritt switched across south London back to Charlton, where he ran their academy for the next six years.
He returned to his hometown club in 2011 to become chief scout, initially under Lee Bradbury and then his successor, Paul Groves.
But he was disappointed to be let go in September 2012, telling theEcho: “They have changed the way they are doing their recruitment so there wasn’t really any need for me to be there.”
Bournemouth chairman Eddie Mitchell explained: “We have got analysts on board now and all games are available on DVD. We are trying to build a database from these clips.
“We felt it was impractical to send somebody all over the country to watch games every day when we can get DVDs of games and players.
“It was a role which diminished for us. Whether it is the right way to go remains to be seen but we have got to look at effectiveness and costs.”
Gritt said: “It was a big thing last year for me to come back to the club where I grew up. I am disappointed it has come to an end like this, but life goes on.
“I have lost jobs in the past and, hopefully, I will bounce back. I am looking forward to the next chapter in my career and will just have to wait and see what comes up.”
Born in Bournemouth on 31 October 1957, Gritt’s early footballing ability was first seen in the Kings Park First School football team of 1969, as the Echo discovered when readers were asked to send in their old sports photos.
A rare sight: young Gritt with hair!
Gritt, a forward, was taken on as an apprentice by the Cherries and played a handful of games for the first team under John Benson before being released at the age of 18.
Colin Masters remembered on the Where Are They Now? website (in an October 2020 post) how Gritt linked up with non-league Dorchester who paired him up front with Ron Davies, the former Welsh international centre-forward who’d played for Southampton, Man Utd and Portsmouth.
“They were an exciting pair to watch at that level,” said Masters. “After three matches I was so impressed with Steve that I went and found the Dorchester club secretary and asked if he had signed Steve Gritt on a contract.
“The reply was ‘No’. Within two weeks, Charlton Athletic came in and took him (presumably for nothing) and he went on to have a very successful career for many years. Dorchester’s loss was Charlton’s gain!”
Between 1977 and 1993, Gritt played a total of 435 matches for the Addicks, including a relegation to the old Third Division in 1980 and two promotions – to the Second Division in 1981 under Mike Bailey and the First Division under Lennie Lawrence in 1986. He had a six-month spell with Walsall in 1989 before returning and experiencing another relegation in 1990.
Gritt became joint player-manager with Curbishley in 1991 and, under their stewardship for the next four years, the likes of Lee Bowyer, John Robinson, Richard Rufus and Shaun Newton established themselves as mainstays of the side.
When Charlton decided in 2021 to re-name their East Stand in Curbishley’s honour, a generous Gritt told londonnewsonline.co.uk it was a fitting tribute to his former colleague.
“We had our trials and tribulations but I’ve always judged that we did what was required to keep the club going. We had to steady the ship.
Joint Charlton manager with Alan Curbishley
“We would have loved to have kept Rob Lee, for example, but we had to do things for the well-being of the club so we could keep it going and give the fans something to shout about.
“It was a great time when we got back to The Valley (they’d spent several years sharing Selhurst Park with Crystal Palace).
“Then the club made a decision which I was never going to agree with. But when I look back to see what Alan did – he went on to do a significant job – I cannot complain. Ultimately what he achieved he thoroughly deserved.”
Gritt said: “When I was there we had to make sure we weren’t seen to be having disagreements although I cannot recall us having too many anyway.
“When we were on the training ground, we each knew what the other one would be doing during the sessions. We both had jobs to do on the day.
“I was more of a player than he was at that time – so the management side was more in his hands. It was fairly straightforward, until the club decided that they wanted one man in charge. That was obviously disappointing for me at the time but I have thoroughly enjoyed my career.
“Alan gave the club a massive block to build on – but no one could have envisaged how the club went after he left. It was a massive disappointment.”
After he left Bournemouth in 2012, Gritt dropped out of league football and spent five years as assistant manager at Ebbsfleet United, working with his former Charlton teammate (and ex-Albion youth team manager) Steve Brown and then Daryl McMahon, who he subsequently followed to League Two Macclesfield Town, Conference side Dagenham & Redbridge and Isthmian League Hornchurch.
LUCA BARRINGTON lifted a trophy as a winning Albion captain in May 2024 before beginning to make his mark in senior football.
Brighton’s £500,000 signing from Manchester City skippered the Seagulls to a 2-0 win over Aston Villa in the Hong Kong Soccer Sevens and was voted player of the tournament too.
Just a few months later, having temporarily swapped Albion’s blue and white stripes with Grimsby Town’s black and white, Barrington started earning plaudits for his contribution to the League Two outfit.
In October he scored twice to give the Mariners their fourth win in five games with a 2-1 win at Salford.
Barrington, who was just 17 when Albion bought him from City in 2022,can play on either wing or in a central attacking midfield role. And at the beginning of his season-long loan with the Mariners, that versatility was being appreciated.
His new temporary boss, head coach David Artell, said of the Brighton youngster: “Luca is going to have a good career. Is he still finding his feet in men’s football? Of course he is, but he has got the ability.”
Barrington was twice a non-playing substitute for Albion’s first team during December 2023 after impressing playing for the under 21 side. Now on the loan path that has served other Albion youngsters well, Town were delighted to capture his signature for the 2024-25 season.
“He’s an excellent, technical player who’s going to provide us with something a bit different,” purred Artell.
“He’s a versatile forward who can play off both flanks and likes to get in behind the opposition. We wanted to strength ourselves in that area of the pitch and, technically, he is very good.”
The coach told Grimsby football writer Sam Allen: “He’s a young boy, but he has got an unbelievable amount of belief.
“You don’t get bought for half a million pounds at17 if you haven’t got something about you.”
The youngster has also caught the eye of Football League World writer Chris Kelly, who noted his growing involvement after going on as a substitute in Grimsby’s opening day defeat at Fleetwood Town.
An injury to winger Charles Vernam opened the door for Barrington to get more game time and he seized the opportunity after going on for the injured player in a 1-0 win over Bromley.
Given a start in the next match, when he also scored in a 3-2 win over Carlisle, Kelly observed:
“The youngster’s composure on the ball helped his side gain second-half control.”
In an early October 2024 article, Kelly wrote: “Barrington is proving his quality and versatility, while having the potential to improve further.
“While Barrington is at the beginning of his professional career, and has a great deal to learn and develop within his game, both with and without the ball, there are signs that his natural talent could see him play at a high level.
“Good with both feet and comfortable carrying the ball and beating his opponent, the youngster is tough to deal with for opponents who find him difficult to anticipate and predict.”
The writer added: “Able to operate in multiple roles, Barrington is equally capable of using his pace to get to the byline and deliver crosses into the box, or cut inside and link-up with the strikers around the edge of the penalty area.
“Also showing signs of defensive awareness and real footballing intelligence, parent club Brighton will be delighted by the quick progress their young attacker is making in his time with Grimsby.”
In a quite different environment, Barrington captained an Albion side in Hong Kong in May 2024 for what was the 25th running of the Hong Kong Sevens tournament.
In the final, a goal in each half from Louis Flower and Benicio Baker-Boaitey earned Albion the win and, in doing so, stopped Aston Villa from winning a record-extending eighth title in the competition.
Barrington had scored a golden goal to edge Albion past Japan’s Yokohama F Marinos in the group phase before the Seagulls saw off Leicester City in the quarter-finals and Fulham in the semis. By way of a footnote, in the Masters Tournament former Albion loanee Leroy Lita scored both goals when the PFA All Stars beat the Singapore FC Masters 2-1.
Born in Manchester on 12 December 2004, Barrington was snapped up by City when he was just six years old.
By 2021, he was named by The Guardian as one of the top 20 first year scholars of Premier League clubs, and writer Jamie Jackson said: “Barrington loves to drift in from either flank to score, as he did for a close range finish in the under-18s’ season-opening 3-0 win over Manchester United, his debut for Ben Wilkinson’s side.” Jackson observed the youngster to be “two-footed, rangy and with a penchant for dribbling”.
As a matter of interest, that same 2021 selection featured Albion’s Jack Hinshelwood and also Kamari Doyle, who Albion signed from Southampton in January 2024 and who is now on loan at Exeter City.
Having scored ten goals in 22 appearances for City to help them win the Under-18 Premier League in 2022, Barrington was offered a professional contract but then chose to switch to Brighton.
At the time Albion secured his signature, then under 21s coachAndrew Croftsdeclared:“Luca had an outstanding campaign at under-18 level with City last season and we’re delighted to welcome him to Brighton. He’s got a lot of ability, a great attitude and we’re really excited to start working with him.”
IT WAS SOMETHING of a coup when multiple trophy winner and England international Adam Lallana joined Brighton from Liverpool in 2020.
His best years might have been behind him, but Lallana’s football intelligence and astute movement were a joy to watch and were, perhaps, a sign that once-humble Albion were getting serious about challenging for the top spots in the Premier League. The club twice achieved top 10 finishes during his four years at the Amex.
As much as anything, Lallana observed in an early interview that his new side would improve with a bit more belief. “That comes with time, with the development of players and with confidence,” he explained. “The more times we play well, the more we’ll get that belief and with that we’ll score more goals and get more wins, but we need to be a little bit patient. Empires aren’t built in a day.”
One of Lallana’s trademarks, as observed in an early profile on Liverpool’s website, was “turning markers inside-out with impulsive twists or burrowing through swathes of players with fine close-control”.
The player said: “Pace isn’t a huge part of my game, but playing the percentages, mathematically, if you can add an extra yard of pace or a couple of percentage points to your game, then that’s massive nowadays.
“I still do a lot of work in the gym to improve my pace, power and strength to try to get that little bit more explosive power to my game. I’m always working to improve.”
Players used to performing at the highest level week in week out don’t suffer fools gladly and it was no surprise to learn that Lallana had a few fallings out in his early days at Brighton, for example with Neal Maupay.
Younger players certainly enjoyed the experience of learning from someone who had played at the very top, for example, Columbian international Steven Alzate, who said: “On and off the pitch he is a leader and when he’s got the ball at his feet he can really show people what he can do. Training with him is an honour; he’s a great guy.”
Those leadership qualities were drawn on by both Graham Potter and Roberto De Zerbi, even though the ageing player’s minutes on the pitch had to be managed carefully.
Lallana even stepped up to support coach Andrew Crofts with first team training in between the reigns of the two managers.
Towards the end of his time at Brighton, Lallana went off in international breaks to work with Lee Carsley preparing the England under 21s ahead of matches.
Born in St Albans on 10 May 1988, Lallana’s family moved to the Ilford area of Bournemouth when he was five and he went to the local Corpus Christi School and St Peter’s Catholic School.
If the surname doesn’t sound Anglo Saxon, that’s because he has Spanish roots: his grandad was from Madrid.
From kicking a ball around with his young pals, Lallana began to harness his footballing talent at the AFC Bournemouth centre of excellence. Southampton paid a £3,000 fee to take him into their own junior ranks when he was just 12 years old. They made subsequent payments totalling £15,000 as he progressed to scholarship and full professional levels.
Lallana was grateful for the quality of the Southampton academy set-up and in particular referenced George Prost, his under-17 coach, as someone who instilled a lot of the attributes that helped to develop his career.
Lallana was in the same Saints youth team as Theo Walcott and Leon Best (Gareth Bale was only on the bench!) that lost the 2005 FA Youth Cup final to Ipswich Town. He was also in the side that lost in the semi-final to Liverpool the following year.
The same year, he made his first team debut in a 5-2 League Cup win over Yeovil Town. Saints loaned him back to Bournemouth in 2007, when he played three games, but he returned to Southampton, then in League One, and was part of their back-to-back promotion-winning side that went from League One to the Premier League.
Having helped Southampton under captain Dean Hammond to the League One runners up spot – behind Brighton – in the 2010-11 season, he was a key member of the side that gained promotion from the Championship in second spot behind Reading (Brighton finished 10th). Over the course of eight years with Southampton, he made 235 appearances, scoring 48 goals.
In the Premier League, Lallana was made Saints captain and he admitted he struggled at first. But the arrival of Mauricio Pochettini had a positive influence on him, as he explained in a matchday programme interview. “He had a big part in moulding me into the player I am today – he took me to that next level.
“When he came to the club he could see that I had pressure on my shoulders, that I wasn’t playing freely – and we just spoke about it and he talked it out of me. By the end of the season and the next season, I was playing the best football of my life I think and a big credit goes to him for that.
“He could see I was a talented player and probably wasn’t playing to my best, but he knew it was because I wasn’t playing freely. We had lots of conversations and him knowing that and speaking to me about it was amazing because instantly it was like a balloon that just popped – immediately it took the pressures off. That was one of many things he did for me at Southampton.”
Lallana said Pochettino also helped him to become fitter and introduced him to the art of pressing. “My love of winning the ball back – that came under Mauricio.”
It was Brendan Rodgers who signed Lallana for Liverpool for £25m after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil where he had been a member of the England squad that finished bottom of its group. Lallana had made his England debut the previous November in a 2-0 friendly defeat v Chile.
In the red of Liverpool
Ten of his 34 caps for England were won in 2016 when he was voted by supporters as the country’s player of the year. By then 28, he scored his first international goal in a last-gasp win over Slovakia in September and two months later netted again against Scotland and Spain at Wembley.
Taking instructions from England boss Gareth Southgate
“This award is a huge honour,” Lallana told The FA.com. “The last three winners were Rooney (2015), Rooney (2014) and Steven Gerrard (2012) so that just goes to show what a great achievement this is.”
By then, Rodgers had been replaced by Jurgen Klopp under whom Lallana blossomed and developed (they were also close neighbours in Formby) as together they went on to win the Premier League title and the Champions League.
In a 2022 documentary about Klopp, made by The Anfield Wrap, Lallana said: “He has the X factor doesn’t he? It’s as simple as that. The amazing ability he has to motivate players. If he’s left you out for 10, 11, 12 games you’re a bit down but somehow with him, you’ve still got so much respect for him even though you aren’t happy.
“I don’t know how he does it but he just has the ability to get you motivated because of who he is, so you’re fighting for the team and for him and that’s the art. It just shows how good he is at being a manager.”
According to thisisanfield.com: “2015-16 was arguably Lallana’s best, as he started 38 games and helped push Liverpool on to the League Cup and Europa League finals.
“One of his finest performances in red came in the Europa League semi-final against Villarreal. With Liverpool trailing 1-0 from the first leg in Spain, an emotionally charged Anfield were put at ease when an early own goal drew them level.
“From then on, Lallana was brilliant for Liverpool in an attacking line-up also featuring Roberto Firmino, Philippe Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge. The latter got the second goal after 63 minutes, but it was Lallana who sealed the game and sent the Reds through to the final, with a composed flick into the net.”
Summing up the Liverpool mindset, Lallana said in a matchday programme interview: “At Liverpool, where the expectations are so high, it was all about just dealing with those pressures.
“We had to forget about what the supporters want, the trophies that are expected, and just believe in what we as a team believed in – and that was playing high-intensity football and being motivated in every game to fight for each other.”
In another interview, this time with the Liverpool Echo, he said: “Playing six years with the intensity of that club takes over your life.”
Nonetheless, when he finally left Anfield for the Albion, he said: “I’m desperate for a new challenge and I’m desperate to play a bit more.
“I still feel like I’ve got plenty more football ahead of me and I’m thoroughly excited by this next challenge and what that will bring.”
A sign of the respect Liverpool fans still had for Lallana was demonstrated at the end of Albion’s 2-2 draw at Anfield in October 2022. As fans sang his name, Lallana tapped his chest and clapped every stand before walking down the tunnel.
Lallana helped lift Brighton to a new level
Reds supporter Aaron Cutler wrote on social media: “Pleased Lallana got a deserved (and delayed) ovation. Easy to forget how integral he was at the start of Klopp’s reign. While injuries limited his game time towards the end he clearly remained an influential presence within the squad. Could have done with him today!”
Of course, during his time with Brighton, Lallana was able to see at close quarters the emergence of Alexis Mac Allister, and he was full of praise in an interview with Graham Hunter:
“What a special player and special person,” he said. “He’s a player that is so pure with how he plays. The way he lends the football, uses others, there’s no selfishness in the way he plays.
“It was so special watching him during the World Cup, not playing to begin with then getting used and proving himself. Then playing so well that there’s no way he doesn’t play, by the end Messi is looking for him.”
Speaking of Mac Allister’s “footballing intelligence” Lallana said: “OK he’s not the quickest or strongest, but so smart. Knows that the football is faster than anyone, Alexis is of that ilk.
“He had to battle tough moments here at the beginning. He’s a very introverted, shy guy.”
With an eye to a likely future in the game as a coach, Lallana enjoyed a great relationship with De Zerbi and told BBC Radio Sussex: “I feel like we’ve helped each other an awful lot in the two years and I’m extremely grateful for how he’s managed me.
“At times I can’t train every day and my body probably lets me down, but he’s been so supportive of me and he’s managed me differently to most other players, probably because of the history I’ve had with injuries and the age I’m at. I know as a footballer that doesn’t often happen.
“Our relationship goes beyond player and coach, he’s like an older brother to me.”
When Lallana decided to leave Brighton at the end of the 2023-24 season and return to Southampton, he had made 64 starts for the Seagulls plus 40 appearances off the bench.
Albion had finished 16th and ninth under Potter then sixth and eleventh under De Zerbi.
In an extended interview with The Athletic, Lallana said: “What has happened is everything I thought was possible. I wouldn’t have said in my first interview we are going to be in Europe in three years, but that is the genius of Tony Bloom (owner-chairman) and Dan Ashworth (former technical director).”
MENTION Mark McGhee to supporters of Wolverhampton Wanderers and most are less than complimentary about the Scot who won third tier promotion with Brighton in 2004.
Steering the Seagulls to that 1-0 play-off final win over Bristol City at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, (as I covered in my previous blog post about McGhee) emulated his feat of taking Millwall out of the same division three years previously, and certainly helped to repair a reputation sullied by his experience at Wolves.
A play-off winners’ medal at last for Mark McGhee
It also delivered much relief for a manager who’d previously only experienced play-off heartache, seeing Wolves’ hopes of returning to the Premier League dashed by a play-off semi-final defeat to Crystal Palace in 1997 and losing to Birmingham with the Lions at the same stage in 2002.
After cutting his managerial teeth at Reading and Leicester, McGhee succeeded former England boss Graham Taylor at Wolves, appointed by chairman Jonathan Hayward, the son of owner Sir Jack Hayward (the pair subsequently had a big falling out and McGhee was caught in the crossfire).
McGhee’s three years at Molineux weren’t all bad – many supporters said he certainly rated higher than the hated Glenn Hoddle – and he couldn’t be faulted for spotting genuine talent having given Irish striker Robbie Keane his Wolves debut as a 17-year-old away to Norwich. “I always believed he could be special,” he said. “Even at that age he was sensational.”
Young Mark McGhee on his arrival at Molineux
But fans of the boys in old gold disliked his managerial style of winding up forthcoming opponents with disparaging remarks. They also felt some of his signings weren’t up to it – a feeling echoed in the spat that emerged between Sir Jack and Jonathan.
“Nice man, Mark, and he had done well enough at Reading and Leicester. But he didn’t buy very well, did he? You have to ask questions about the quality of the players he brought to this club,” Sir Jack told reporter Paul Weaver in January 1999.
“We should never have let Graham Taylor go. Graham is an outstanding football manager. I’m afraid we bowed to pressure from the fans. We didn’t give him enough time. Then we gave McGhee plenty.”
For many, the final straw in the McGhee reign was when he left club legend Steve Bull on the subs bench in favour of much-derided Steve Claridge when Wolves lost the 1998 FA Cup semi-final to Arsenal.
“No turning back after that really, he’d lost it,” said ‘Bend It Like Dennison’ on molineuxmix.co.uk. “A very negative manager, prone to making stupid comments which wound opposition teams up and made us one of the most hated teams in the division,” opined ‘Nashie’ on the same platform.
“I had high hopes for McGhee and sometimes I quite liked the way he wound up the opposition with his arrogance, however, while he could talk the talk, he couldn’t quite walk the walk!” said ‘Bill McCai’.
The Scot was never afraid to speak his mind and even his former Newcastle boss, Bill McGarry (a figure well known to Wolves fans from his days as manager between 1968 and 1976) told him: ‘Mark, you talk too much. Tone it down a bit.’
“I tried to take his advice, give nothing away in media briefings. Then, somebody would say something interesting and I wasn’t able to stop myself,” McGhee admitted in an interview with theleaguepaper.com.
On molineuxmix.co.uk, ‘stuj4z’ reckoned: “McGhee started to believe his own hype and became a parody of himself. Stupid signings were his downfall because overall I thought his tactics were ok. McGhee wasn’t the devil incarnate and did do some good things for the club.”
‘Florida Wolfey’ maintained: “McGhee was a decent manager and he certainly cared about this football club. He was unfortunate not to get us up in his first season and we never really recovered from that failure. Like all managers he made some good decisions and some decisions he’d rather have made again.”
When the axe fell, McGhee admitted to Nick Townsend of The Independent: “For that first month after I was sacked by Wolves, until I got over the initial shock, I never really opened the door. I became a recluse. I was feeling angry and frustrated.”
Townsend observed that having previously walked out on Reading and Leicester to take the Wolves’ job, “many supporters among his former clubs relished the spectacle of the assured and articulate McGhee being thrown from the steed of his own galloping ambition, his features ground in the dirt”.
“I was 100 per cent justified in leaving Reading after John Madejski gave me permission to talk to Leicester” McGhee told Townsend. “Leaving Filbert Street, a year later, was different. I knew when I walked out of there that it was, in a sense, wrong.
“I knew I’d let their chairman, Martin George, down badly, and the players I’d brought in. People thought, when Wolves dangled the bait, that was me, off and out, no hesitation, no qualms, and that’s where I got my reputation. But it wasn’t like that. It was torture.
“Two minutes before I made the decision to go, I was staying. There was pressure from all kinds of people I respected to go. Against my own conscience, I took the job.”
He added: “I read the papers and I don’t recognise myself. But, obviously, people are thinking that a guy who can up and leave Leicester after a year like that must be one kind of arrogant, callous bastard. All I can do to fix that impression is to go on from here and prove to people that’s not the way I am.”
As it turned out, he feared the football community had turned its back on him when no further managerial opportunity surfaced for nearly two years. It was only a regular punditry slot on Sky Sports that reminded people he was still around.
When he eventually got back in the game as manager of Millwall in September 2000, McGhee garnered a sympathetic ear from The Guardian football writer Roy Collins.
“I don’t think I got a bad deal,” McGhee told Collins. “I think I got exactly what I deserved. The biggest mistake I made was in underestimating the reaction of people when I walked out on Leicester. That is not to say that I regret leaving Leicester but it tarnished my reputation in such a way that Wolves’ fans never really accepted me.
“I was only fulfilling my ambition but I’ve learned that sometimes you have to think twice and maybe it would have been right for me to have said, no matter how much I want to take what I see as a bigger job, I can’t have it.”
McGhee admitted to the reporter he’d had sleepless nights and restless days wondering whether any club would forgive him, so he was grateful for the chance Millwall gave him, admitting: “This is a second chance for me and if I mess it up, I won’t get a third.”
A relieved McGhee told the Evening Standard: “To say I am very pleased to get back into the game is an understatement. I am absolutely ecstatic, but I would not have come back for any job.
“I haven’t been applying for everything that has been going because I felt the opportunity had to be one I was motivated by.
“It did not have to be the biggest club, or in the top league, but I had to really want to do it. I got a gut feeling about some jobs and I had that for Millwall.
“You get a feel for the place and I had an idea what they were about because I am a good pal of their old manager Mick McCarthy.
“In my playing career I was at Newcastle and Celtic. They have demanding, but passionate fans and I know that is the same at Millwall. It is very exciting.”
Millwall chairman Theo Paphitis admitted: “Mark was not always the front runner for the job, but got himself into the position at the interview.
“He said the right things. I believe he was sincere and I am very pleased we have him on board. He is the right person for the job.”
When there was a mutual parting of the ways in October 2003, Paphitis said: “He took over in September 2000 with the brief to get the club into the First Division that season which he duly achieved.
“We then enjoyed a very successful first season at this level, reaching the play-offs the following year. Last season was a frustrating one for the club and whilst expectations were high at the start of the current campaign, we have struggled to live up to them.”
Interestingly, when he was shown the door at Brighton, likewise there was appreciation rather than dismay at what he had brought to the club.
Powering up
“No matter where you stand on the club’s decision to part company with the former Scottish international, you can’t say he didn’t leave us without one or two golden memories, especially during his first season in charge,” the matchday programme reminded readers.
“There are more than a few supporters out there who rate what happened inside the Millennium Stadium that May day in 2004 as their top Albion moment, above Wembley 1991 and – whisper it – even 1983. Why? Well, for once, we actually won on a big stage. But there was more to it than that: thirty thousand fans invading Wales and laying siege to what is generally regarded as one of the finest stadiums in the world.”
The piece reminded supporters that in the higher division, against clubs with hugely superior resources, Albion beat the likes of Leeds United and Sunderland at humble Withdean as well as nicking unlikely wins at Leicester City, West Ham and Sheffield United.
Even in the season (2005-06) when they weren’t able to retain that hard-earned status, they managed a first win in 22 years at Selhurst Park, toppling the old rivals on their own patch with the only goal of the game scored by loanee Paul McShane.
After a fascinating 3-3 draw at Elland Road, home boss Kevin Blackwell observed that McGhee had “the hardest job in football”.
The programme pondered: “One can’t help but wonder what McGhee’s record would have been had the club been playing inside a stadium worthy of the upper echelons of the English game, with some finance to burn and facilities good enough to tempt Championship and Premier League calibre players to Sussex.” Indeed.
CHRIS HUGHTON is well respected for his achievements at Brighton but he never forgot that it was Newcastle United who gave him his first job as a manager.
Steering both clubs to promotion from the Championship earned him the League Managers Association’s manager of the season accolade on each occasion (2010 and 2017).
The fact Brighton hadn’t reached the top tier for 34 years and had been close to the bottom of the Championship when Hughton took over meant he saw it as an even greater achievement than his Toon success.
“A lot of people ask me about the difference between that promotion and the one I had with Newcastle,” he said. “In all honesty, if I look at where the team was when I took over, I think it was a harder job to do it with Brighton.
“I’ll always remember Newcastle’s promotion as my first achievement as a manager, but this one was probably the most emotional.”
Albion were one place above the Championship relegation zone when Hughton took over at Brighton on New Year’s Eve 2014.
Club chairman Tony Bloom said: “Chris has an excellent record in coaching and management. He’s hugely respected, both nationally and internationally, and he has great contacts within the game.
“He is someone who has a real wealth of experience in the top two divisions, from nearly 15 years at Spurs as a coach, assistant and interim manager, through to his more recent work in the Premier League and Championship.
“Chris is also a manager who has a track record for developing talent at all levels from academy upwards and will embrace the work we’ve been doing at the club in this area in recent seasons.
“Importantly, we also felt Chris is someone who can improve our immediate situation, while also having the management credentials and skills to plan our long-term future and help us to get back to progressing in the way we have in previous seasons.”
Former Spurs and Fulham captain and ex-Brighton manager Alan Mullery, by then an Albion ambassador, declared: “I think they have pulled off a real coup by bringing in Chris. He’s a very experienced manager, both at this level and in the Premier League, and he is a good man as well.
“We obviously go back a long way with our Tottenham connections; I know him well and his lovely family.
“He’ll be keen to see his players keep possession of the ball, but I also think he’ll make the side harder to beat. He knows exactly what is needed to be a success at this level and I’m sure we’ll see his own stamp on the team as the weeks pass.”
Indeed, in an interview with Tony Hodson for coachesvoice.com, Hughton spoke about how he set about the task of restoring Albion’s fortunes.
“When you join at that stage of the season, it’s about instilling the system that you want to play in as short a period of time as you can and getting the players to buy into that system.
“You hope that the reaction to a new manager coming in is a help and not a hindrance to that. And in most cases it is a help, because everybody wants to do well. But I was aware that the team had been through a difficult period, and that I was changing their way of playing quite dramatically.
“Everything rested on how they’d respond to it, and fortunately they did that well (Albion just avoided the drop, finishing third from bottom). But even then, I knew it was going to take a summer of working with them throughout the pre-season period, and recruiting well, to take the club where they really wanted to go.”
Hughton continued: “In my first full season at Brighton, we came within touching distance of automatic promotion to the Premier League, missing out on goal difference. We then had less than a week to prepare for the first leg of our playoff semi final against Sheffield Wednesday.
“We lost it 2-0. And, despite playing some of the best football we’d played all season for 30 minutes of the second leg at the Amex, we drew that game – meaning that, despite losing just six league games all season, our hopes of playing Premier League football the following year were over.
“The question then was, having got so close to promotion and put so much into achieving that aim, what would the reaction be like from the players next season?
“Would they be as determined to go through it all again? The honest answer is that, at that moment, you just don’t know.
“All you can hope is that the disappointment will drive them on, and that you’ve instilled enough into them to give you the best possible chance of success. As soon as pre-season started, though, I could feel we had a group of players who were desperate to go again. We were playing in a division that had a lot of strong teams, but thankfully we started the season well – we lost just twice before the turn of the year.”
Hughton recalled: “With four games of the season to go, we were top of the league. By that stage, I was quietly confident that we were going to achieve promotion.
“Going into our game against Wigan Athletic – at home, where we had a strong record – I was equally confident of getting a result. But that belief doesn’t take anything away from the emotion of what you feel inside once the job is done, and promotion is secured.
“At that stage, it becomes not so much about yourself but what it means to the club, the fans, to the people who employ you, and to a group of players who were desperate to be Premier League footballers.”
While Brighton’s ownership and structure suited Hughton down to the ground, his time at Newcastle was largely against a backdrop of turmoil off the pitch.
Nonetheless, the ever reasonable Hughton said: “Newcastle are a club and a fanbase that I have the utmost respect for and I will always want them to do well.”
Hughton spent three years on Tyneside, initially as first-team coach under Kevin Keegan. Toon finished that first season 12th in the league – but the following year it all went wrong.
“By the end of the season, there had been three different managers in charge – and defeat to Aston Villa on the final day meant that, after 16 years in the top flight, Newcastle were relegated,” he recalled in an interview with coachesvoice.com.
During the close season of 2009, Hughton was appointed caretaker manager before the position was made permanent in November of that year.
So, after all those years of coaching, the likeable Londoner finally had his opportunity to be a manager in his own right, although he admitted: “However much preparation you have as a coach, when you cross that line into management it is completely different.
“Newcastle was far from the stable, calm environment you would want when starting out. The team had just been relegated, we’d lost a lot of players and the club was up for sale. I had to dig deep and draw on the wealth of experience I’d gained as a coach.
“I knew I still had a good squad, so the challenge was making sure each and every one pushed in the right direction to get us back into the Barclays Premier League.
“Central to that was creating the right environment at the training ground, because the training pitch can provide great solace for players. I knew that if I could get everyone on board, we could be a strong force in the Championship.”
As he told coachesvoice.com: “Everybody was aware that the owner was trying to sell the club – and we had players who wanted to leave for Premier League clubs or moves abroad. We had to quickly determine the ones who wanted to stay and fight – the ones who wanted to get the club back up into the Premier League.
“There was so much uncertainty around the club. But, even in those situations, there are some things that will always remain. Firstly, the team have to train. Irrespective of what’s going on around them, that’s what players want to do. They enjoy training.
“By the time we’d got past the transfer window and it was determined which players were going to stay, I knew we had a group who were determined to go straight back up again.”
As it turned out, it couldn’t have gone better for him. The side were unbeaten at home and earned promotion back to the Premier League as the 2010 Championship title winners. Hughton won the LMA Championship Manager of the Year title too.
This was a side in which Andy Carroll netted 19 goals and Kevin Nolan 17 blending successfully with the likes of Jose Enrique, Fabricio Coloccini and Jonas Gutierrez.
In December the following season, amazingly, with Newcastle sitting 11th in the Premier League table, Hughton was sacked – and his players weren’t happy about it.
Joey Barton, Nolan, Steve Harper and Alan Smith complained to managing director Derek Llambias over the hasty manner of his departure.
The League Managers Association also took a dim view. Its chief executive Richard Bevan said: “The LMA is extremely disappointed that Newcastle have parted company with Chris given the success the club has experienced since his appointment.
“Throughout his time at Newcastle, Chris has conducted himself with tremendous integrity and dignity, the team’s current position of 11th demonstrating the stabilising effect Chris has had in his role as manager during his period at Newcastle.”
Hughton, meanwhile, with characteristic understatement, told leadersinperfomance.com: “I was disappointed, but I didn’t let it knock my confidence and self belief.
“It helped to know that many managers and others in football thought I’d done a good job at Newcastle. The reaction was terrifically supportive. My coping mechanism was to keep busy and prepare for the next job.”
In an exclusive interview with Lee Ryder for chroniclelive.co.uk, Hughton reflected warmly on his time at the club, saying: “I don’t look back on my time at Newcastle – because it’s always there with me, once you’ve been part of the club it never goes away.
“For me, there were so many firsts. It was the first time I’d worked away from London, Newcastle was my first stint away from the capital.
“It was my first role as a manager and first foray into management. And it was my first time in the Championship.
“So, for me, Newcastle is always with me, always there, it was an incredible time.”
Hughton told the reporter: “The one thing I have been very grateful for was the opportunity to do it. I will be forever grateful for the opportunity because it set me on the way to a management career.
“That was an unbelievable start for me and that’s what I will never forget – even without pictures and reminders. It’s always etched into my head.”
In the circumstances of his departure from Newcastle, it was probably not a surprise that he didn’t have to wait long for another job, although it was back in the Championship at Birmingham City, after they’d been relegated from the Premier League under Alex McLeish at the end of the 2010-11 season.
Having won the League Cup, Blues competed in the Europa League in 2011-12, competing in eight qualifying and group matches. In spite of that burden, they finished fourth in the league. Unfortunately, they lost to Blackpool in the play-off semi-finals.
Their penultimate game of the season had been at the Amex against Gus Poyet’s Seagulls, a game which finished in a 1-1 draw, the point enough to guarantee their play-off place. The matchday programme gave plenty of coverage to the visitors and their manager.
talkSPORT presenter and Blues fan Ian Danter spoke about how the side had benefited from Hughton’s “calm approach” and his “sharp and focused manner” after an astonishing churn of 27 players in or out of the club over the summer.
And he said the fans had really taken to Hughton, adding: “He has been the one aspect that has pulled everyone together and he has certainly done well with the players. He has got his theories and ideas across to them. He also understands his constraints from board level regarding money.”
When Paul Lambert decided to jump ship and leave Norwich City to take over at Birmingham’s city rivals Aston Villa, the vacancy at Carrow Road proved ideal to enable Hughton to step back up to the elite level in English football.
He signed a three-year deal with Norwich, taking assistant manager Colin Calderwood and first team coach Paul Trollope with him.
“My decision to leave was based on what Norwich City had to offer,” he said. “The chance to return to managing at Premier League level at a club that had made great strides in the preceding seasons. It very much whetted my appetite.”
He admitted to the Birmingham Mail that it had been a tough decision but added: “As a manager or coach you want to manage or coach at the highest level. The draw of going to the Premier League was one that was too big an opportunity to turn down.
“In some ways Norwich is, possibly, a very similar club to Birmingham. They have a very loyal and local support.
“This was an opportunity to return to the Premier League and that is what excited me.”
Hughton led Norwich to an 11th-place finish in the top flight during the 2012-13 season but patience hasn’t always been in plentiful supply at City and with relegation on the cards the following season, he was sacked with five games still to play.
A 1-0 home defeat to West Brom on 5 April 2014 had been the final straw and in angry post-match scenes the Carrow Road faithful called for Hughton’s dismissal. Only one point was gained from the remaining four matches and they were relegated anyway in 18th position, three points short of the Baggies in 17th.
It would be eight months before Hughton rode to Brighton’s rescue, picking up the reins of what had been a challenging first half of the 2014-15 season under the relatively inexperienced coach Sami Hyypia.
Having reached the Premier League within a season and a half of taking charge at Brighton, Hughton reflected: “My ultimate responsibility was to make sure that we stayed there. That means making the right decisions when it comes to putting together a team you feel is going to be good enough to do that.
“At that point, you have to take the emotion out of it. Hard choices have to be made in terms of areas you feel need to be strengthened. But it’s also about finding the right balance between keeping the consistency of players who have been playing together for a period of time, and deciding whether they are good enough to make that step up.
“At the time, I thought that we had the makings of a team, and a mentality, that didn’t need too much work. And, for the next two seasons, we remained a Premier League team.”
Hughton received an honorary degree from the University of Sussex to mark his achievements in the game and admitted: “It’s a huge honour and something I certainly didn’t expect.
“To do what we have done over the past four years with Brighton and to be honoured for that is something that is hugely humbling.”
It was the second half of 2018-19 that changed the wave of goodwill, though. Although Albion reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup, league form was poor.
Even so, when Hughton was summoned to meet chairman Bloom at the training ground the day after Manchester City eclipsed Brighton 4-1 to win the league title, he had no idea the fate that awaited him.
“It came as a shock to lose my job in the way that I did,” he said. And in a subsequent interview with Alyson Rudd of The Times, he said: “The biggest disappointment is that I never saw it coming.
“As a manager you get a feel when things are not right or relationships have broken down, but there was never anything there for me to feel what was coming. I thought the chairman was in there for club stuff or if he was there to see me it was about the pre-season, so it was a big shock. For a moment, I couldn’t say anything. I absolutely wasn’t expecting it. I was stunned; there was a silence.”
Hughton felt getting Albion into the Premier League and never being in the bottom three once was “achieving” although he admitted: “I am very conscious that the second half of the season was not as good as the first and it was not a rosy situation.”
But he pointed out: “I spent four and a half years there and never had an argument with the chairman, never had an argument with (chief executive) Paul Barber, never had an argument with (technical director) Dan Ashworth. I’m certainly not bitter. If you end up bitter, you’re the only one who loses out. It was the club’s prerogative.”
Hughton’s way back into the game post-Brighton came at the City Ground, Nottingham, in October 2020 when he succeeded Sabri Lamouchi who’d had a winless start to the Championship season.
Even though he was able to turn to three of his former Brighton promotion-winners in Glenn Murray, Gaetan Bong and Anthony Knockaert, Forest had an indifferent campaign and finished in a disappointing 17th place. The new season was only into its second month when Hughton was shown the door having secured just one point from the first seven games. His successor, Steve Cooper, led Forest to promotion.
Hughton’s next job in football came with his appointment in February 2022 as the technical advisor to Ghana’s national football team.
He then replaced coach Otto Addo as head coach after Ghana finished bottom of their group at the World Cup in Qatar. But he won just two of his nine matches in charge (three draws and four defeats) and was relieved of his duties in January 2024 after Ghana exited the Africa Cup of Nations at the group stage.
Amongst many different articles and interviews about Hughton, perhaps this leadersinperformance.com piece best sums him up: “Modest and measured in his approach, Chris Hughton is a rare find in the world of senior management.
“Confident in his own personality and abilities, Hughton has no reservations about drawing inspiration from a host of managers, past and present.
“While Chris Hughton remains true wherever possible to his calm and thoughtful style of leadership, underneath is a steel and determination that enables him to deal with the tough scenarios that inevitably arise in football, albeit in a respectful manner.
“It is perhaps because of this considered, well-balanced and open style of leadership that he has become one of the most employable and universally liked managers around.”
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR was a key part of Chris Hughton’s life for more years than any of the other clubs he went on to serve.
While Brighton fans will always appreciate his four-year tenure taking the Seagulls from the Championship into the Premier League, he spent the first 19 years of his playing career at Spurs as well as 14 and a half years as a coach (and occasional caretaker manager) at White Hart Lane.
Hughton joined Tottenham’s youth set-up at the tender age of 13 in 1971, as he recounted in an In The Spotlight feature in the Spurs matchday programme for their September 2024 game v Brentford. It was the year the club won the League Cup captained by Alan Mullery with a side that included Phil Beal, Joe Kinnear and Martin Chivers, who scored both goals in the 2-0 victory over Aston Villa.
Hughton attended inner city school St Bonaventure’s in Newham, many years later attended by loanee striker Chuba Akpom who told Andy Naylor in an exclusive for the Argus: “When I was in school there used to be pictures of the gaffer there. The kids used him like an inspiration and motivation. I did as well: seeing someone come from the same area and the same school as me to become such a big and successful person.”
Other footballing St Bon’s alumni included Hughton’s brother Henry, John Chiedozie, Jermaine Defoe and Martin Ling (briefly an Albion player under Micky Adams).
Hughton’s progress as a youngster took a slightly unconventional turn when, at 16, Spurs told him he hadn’t done quite enough to be taken on as an apprentice.
“There was still that chance, though – a small window of opportunity,” he recounted to coachesvoice.com. “So, while I started a four-year apprenticeship as a lift engineer, I stayed on at Tottenham as an amateur.
“That meant working all day, then on two nights a week getting the bus or train to the training ground – apart from those days when I ended up working late and just couldn’t get there in time. Then, on Saturdays, I’d play for the youth team. I lived that life for two years.”
Football-wise, by the age of 18 Hughton had done enough to persuade Spurs to offer him a professional contract – but he didn’t want to cut short his lift engineer apprenticeship, so he turned them down but continued playing for the club as an amateur.
“I was fortunate,” he said. “My window of opportunity stayed open, and at 20 I finally became a professional footballer for Tottenham… as well as a qualified lift engineer.”
It was during Keith Burkinshaw’s eight-year reign as manager that Hughton enjoyed most of his success as a Spurs player, usually filling the left-back spot of a side that won the FA Cup in 1981 and 1982 and the 1984 UEFA Cup.
“It was a period that had a big impact on me, and on who I became,” said Hughton, who played alongside the likes of World Cup winners Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa, the gifted Glenn Hoddle and goalkeeper Ray Clemence, and Steve Perryman, “the best captain I played under”.
Born in Forest Gate, east London, on 11 December 1958, it might have been West Ham territory but it was Spurs that took on trial a group of five lads who had been playing in the district of Newham side.
“I ended up staying there,” he told the Argus in a November 2017 interview. “My upbringing was different. I was always playing. Although my dad is very much now a football fan, I didn’t have a family background of football.
“I think I went to West Ham once, a family friend took me. I was a football fanatic but always playing. I never really had an allegiance to any team. But I’m very much a West Ham lad.”
Hughton qualified to play for the Republic of Ireland – home of his mother Christine. His father Willie was Ghanaian (Hughton later became that country’s coach).
He made his debut for Eire in 1979 and won 53 caps over the next 12 years, including playing in three matches at the 1988 Euros. Although he was in the 1990 World Cup squad, he didn’t play any matches. He was the Republic’s assistant manager to Brian Kerr between 2003 and 2005.
Being of mixed race, Hughton suffered plenty of racial abuse both from the terraces and from opposition players, as he revealed in an interview with broadcaster Ian ‘Moose’ Abrahams for whufc.com in November 2023.
“You suffered it by yourself because you were the only one who was receiving that type of abuse, you were the only one that almost understood it, and being the only black player in the team you took all of that on your own shoulders,” he said.
“Sometimes it’s hard to think back now and comprehend how you coped with that, and the coping mechanism is because firstly you are used to it, and secondly your mentality had to be that you’re better than that. You generally suffered by yourself.”
Hughton continued: “There were numerous times over that period, especially in the reserve team, and yes, even in the first team that I suffered racial abuse [from opposing players].
“I reacted to it, but I knew the boundaries, because you knew if you went too far you were going to get sent off.”
A knee injury at the age of 28 was a signal for Hughton to begin to consider what he might do once his playing days were over, and he did some coaching sessions at soccer schools. “I started to think this was what I wanted to do,” he said.
When he was no longer guaranteed a starting berth at Spurs, Hughton moved across London to the club closest to where he grew up: West Ham. Hughton signed for the Hammers initially on loan in November 1990 to cover for the injured Julian Dicks, and then permanently on a free transfer.
“My parents still live in Upton Park, so I was born and brought up very close to the stadium,” Hughton recalled in a November 2017 Argus interview.
Signed by Billy Bonds, he was with the Hammers for just over a year, helped them win promotion from the old Division Two in 1990-91and played a total of 43 matches (plus one as a sub).
“It was a really enjoyable period of time,” he said. “Billy Bonds was the manager. He was not only a great manager but a great individual.”
In February 1992, he moved on a free transfer to then Third Division Brentford, whose squad included Neil Smillie and Bob Booker. Graham Pearce was a coach. They won the divisional title but the following season Hughton’s troublesome knee forced him to retire at the age of 34.
“By the time I signed for Brentford at the age of 33 I was certain that I wanted to coach,” Hughton told coachesvoice.com. “I was taking far more interest in things like tactics and the thinking behind training sessions. Brentford’s manager at the time, Phil Holder, even allowed me to take a few sessions.” Hughton added: “It actually set me up for my coaching career as I learned a lot in that time.”
After he’d called time on his playing days, he didn’t have to wait long for an opportunity to open up for him as a coach because his former teammate Ardiles, who’d not long since taken over as Spurs manager, invited him to help out back at White Hart Lane.
“We’d been good friends since our days playing for the club, so he knew all about my coaching aspirations and brought me in as the under-21s’ and reserve team coach,” Hughton explained. “I’ve always been very grateful to him for giving me that first opportunity.”
For the first year or so, he worked alongside the former West Ham player Pat Holland, who he described as “an excellent tactical and technical coach”.
Hughton explained it was a period in which he discovered how to transition from being a player to a coach. “As much as you’ve been part of a changing room thousands of times as a player, taken part in countless training sessions and listened to more team talks than you can remember, none of those things have ever been your responsibility before.
“In that respect, football is no different to any other aspect of life. If someone has spent years working on a shop floor, then moves up to management and has to govern a group of people, they have to make that same transition. It’s not easy.”
As managers came and went, Hughton remained on the coaching staff. After Ardiles came Gerry Francis and Christian Gross. Hughton was in caretaker charge for six matches before George Graham took over from Gross. Next in the hot seat was Glenn Hoddle, followed by Jacques Santini and then Martin Jol.
“Such a long apprenticeship might not be for everyone and some can go straight from player to manager at a young age, but I wouldn’t have been ready,” said Hughton.
“There was always something new to learn and experience. It was exciting to see what each new manager would be like, how he would involve me and what I would learn.
“The club could easily have said, ‘Now that the manager has left we won’t be keeping you on’, but they showed faith in my abilities and, in return, I provided some continuity.”
Hughton was assistant manager to Jol and said: “We had three years together, and in terms of league positions they were successful ones.”
By the time he was shown the door at Spurs, along with Jol, after a difficult start to the 2007-08 season, he felt ready to become a manager in his own right.
But before that happened, a different proposition emerged when Kevin Keegan asked him to become first team coach at Newcastle United.
“I’d spent my entire playing and coaching career in London, but any apprehension I felt at relocating to another part of the country was outweighed by the excitement,” he told leadersinperformance.com.
“I was going to a legendary club with an incredible tradition, rich history and great fan base and I was going to assist Kevin Keegan. I learned a lot from him during our time together, especially from his strengths in man-management.”
• What happened next in Hughton’s career is the subject of my next blog post. Thanks for reading!
MARC CUCURELLA has got used to going from hero to zero in the eyes of fickle football fans.
A revelation in his one and only season playing for Brighton, he scored a stunning goal in a 4-0 thrashing of Manchester United and was crowned both Players’ Player and Player of the Season.
But he pushed for a transfer only one year into a five-year contract and, although he didn’t get his hoped-for move to Manchester City, joined Chelsea for £62m.
While his first few months at Stamford Bridge were tough on and off the pitch, he finished the season as a regular in Mauricio Pochettino’s side and then went on to bigger and better things for his country.
He became a cult hero for his impressive performances at left-back during Spain’s winning run to claim the European Championship in July.
Euro winners: Cucurella with Nico Williams
Capping an excellent tournament by supplying the inch-perfect pass for Mikel Oyarzabal’s late winner, Cucurella was justified in having a dig at pundit Gary Neville who’d previously said the defender was “probably one of the reasons why Spain could not go all the way” in the tournament.
“We went all the way, Gary. Thanks for your support,” was Cucurella’s social media retort after the 2-1 win over England rounded off a tournament that he might not have been involved in if Valencia’s Jose Gaya and Barcelona’s Alejandro Balde hadn’t been injured.
The left-back with the “massive” hair also let his feet do the talking in response to German fans who booed his every touch of the ball in the semi-final and final because they reckoned he was guilty of a handball in the penalty area against the host nation but a penalty wasn’t given.
“I did not care too much, but at the same time, it felt a bit sad that some people came to that game just to boo a single player,” Cucurella told The Athletic. “Some people wasted tickets that could have gone to fans who would have really enjoyed the match.”
But, he pointed out, it wasn’t a new experience because Brighton fans, angered by the manner of his big money departure from the club after only one season, reacted similarly when he returned to the Amex playing for Chelsea.
“It was another night when the boos were really loud every time I touched the ball, so I got used to it,” he said. “The first time I went through this… I won’t say it’s an unbearable feeling but it’s unpleasant. Now I’m more used to it.”
Some players move on stylishly, others go about it in what is perceived to be the wrong way – thus incurring the opprobrium of supporters who remain loyal to the club.
A sizeable enough contingent of Albion fans were aggrieved by the manner of Cucurella’s departure from the club to vent spleen whenever he touched the ball as a Chelsea player back at the Amex.
It was a toss-up between Cucurella and Graham Potter as to who was the bigger pantomime villain when Chelsea were thumped 4-1 at Falmer in October 2022. “The Spaniard was booed and jeered relentlessly for over an hour on his first game at Brighton since his transfer,” The Athletic noted.
The online sports news outlet continued: “According to Whoscored, Cucurella’s defensive output included no tackles, no interceptions and just one clearance.”
They noted it was the fourth time in five starts that Cucurella had been taken off early, and said: “This change would have hurt the most. The taunts grew louder as he made his way off the pitch and the look on his face spoke volumes.”
Things might not have been going well for him at the time, but Potter was not unduly concerned and said: “He’s a resilient character, he’s a really good person. Sometimes when you move clubs it goes really well, and sometimes it can be a little bit of an up-and-down period. Marc’s a little bit up and down but he’s a top player and he will show his quality.”
Cucurella was an unused sub when Albion clinched the double over the Londoners that season with a 2-1 win at Stamford Bridge. But the next time he faced his old teammates, he demonstrated a level of commitment that in some quarters earned him the man of the match accolade.
When Potter’s successor Mauricio Pochettino selected him at right-back in the Carabao Cup against Brighton in September 2023, previously critical Chelsea supporters couldn’t believe what they saw as the home side edged the match 1-0. One said: “Pocketed Mitoma and Joao Pedro . What a shift for him.”
Agreeing he was ‘man of the match’, another said: “Cucurella was absolutely brilliant in that second half, playing that well at right-back was not something that I expected, fair play to him, maybe he should be given more opportunities.”
Arguably, he answered Brighton supporters’ criticism even more effectively – in a similar style to what he did in the Euros final v England – on 15 May 2024 at the Amex when his pinpoint cross in the 34th minute was comprehensively buried in the back of Albion’s net by Cole Palmer’s head.
But let’s remember a much happier time, when the Spaniard was the toast of the Albion faithful with a quite magnificent contribution to that 4-0 thumping of Manchester United.
Muhammad Butt on squawka.com positively purred about Cucurella’s performance declaring his man of the match accolade as “a richly deserved reward for a player who could truly ascend to any height in the world game”.
The writer’s colourful report observed:“What Cucurella did to poor Diogo Dalot all afternoon recalled The Avengers when Hulk whipped Loki around like a caveman trying to dry a wet sock on some rocks.
“Cucurella has the instantly iconic look of a comic book hero, a wiry frame with a face that is all prominent eyebrows and colossal curly hair giving him an instantly iconic silhouette.
“And he plays with the kind of ceaseless energy that one would attribute to those spandex-adorned heroes for whom stamina never seems to be an issue.”
Warming to his theme, Butt continued: “Cucurella grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck and was the dominant force on the pitch. Even when he played no part in the goals, the overall pressure that was weighing on United and keeping them pinned back in their own half was born of the Catalan’s drive and determination.
‘Such was Cucurella’s power against United that when he scored Brighton’s second goal, arriving late in the box like some left-sided Frank Lampard to lash the ball home violently at the near-post leaving David de Gea in the early stages of a Bee Gees tribute dance, it wasn’t even surprising. It made perfect sense, as though he had been doing it all season when, in fact, it was his first goal of the campaign.”
Sadly for Brighton fans, that showing seemed to be like an audition for a bigger and better stage and he had only two more matches in Albion’s colours.
Born in the Catalan village of Allela on 22 July 1998, he played futsal with his local club before linking up with the junior sides of Espanyol, where he was made captain. From there, at the age of 14, he joined Catalan giants Barcelona in 201
A rare appearance for Barcelona
“Barcelona were always my team,” he told the Albion matchday programme. “I liked the style of play and the big players the club always attracted.”
He went on: “For me to join such a special club, at such a special time in its history, was a proud moment for my family.”
He made his debut for the club’s B team at the age of 18 but also had the chance to train with the stars of the first team.
“While I was still in the academy, I would sometimes train with Messi or Neymar, which was really exciting,” he said. “I’d train with Busquets, Jordi Alba, sometimes Suarez, and it was scary the first time I stepped up.
“I was very nervous, training alongside players I’d only seen on TV or on the PlayStation, but these are the moments you remember for the rest of your life.”
He only made one brief substitute appearance for the Barcelona first team, going on for Lucas Digne in a 3-0 Copa del Rey win at Real Murcia in October 2017, and he said: “It was a very nice moment for me but it was a shame I never got to play for the team at Camp Nou.”
Cucurella got to play in La Liga on loan at Eibar (in 2018-19) and Getafe (in 2019-2020) before moving permanently to Getafe for the 2020-21 season.
When Albion signed him, fellow former Barca B graduate and ex-Albion midfielder Andrea Orlandi, now a TV pundit, told the Albion matchday programme: “Marc is a super-energetic player whose main assets are his energy, attitude and intensity.
“He was in the top three in every physical study in La Liga for the last three seasons and can’t play without giving it 100 per cent. He has the perfect attributes to be a success in the Premier League.”
Perhaps it should be no surprise that he shone for Spain at the 2024 Euros because he had been selected by his country at almost every age group level and won a silver medal as part of the under-23 side at the 2020 Olympic Games.
His first senior appearance was in a friendly against Lithuania in June 2021 when he captained the side to a 4-0 win. A second cap followed in a 3-3 draw with Brazil at the Bernabeu in Madrid in March 2024. The run through to the final took his caps tally to 10.
In an in-depth interview with Pol Ballus for The Athletic in July 2024, Cucurella opened up on the turbulence he had suffered after making the move to Chelsea. “Until the summer of 2022, my football career had been great: a constant progression, always upwards with no setbacks. Then I arrived at a club where the expectations were so, so high.
“Until then, I had played at clubs where every victory felt really special, where every point is celebrated. Then you go to Chelsea, where you win a game because that’s what you have to do. There is no time to chill or enjoy.”
Not only was managerial change disruptive, things didn’t go well for him off the field. “I spent the first two months living in a hotel with my family, then soon after we found a place to live we had thieves breaking into our home. After this, I spent two days hospitalised for a virus. I lost a lot of weight and had to start from scratch to get in shape again. It wasn’t easy to come back. The team couldn’t find their way on the pitch, either.”
Cucurella said fans had expectations of him because of the size of the fee Chelsea played Brighton but he pointed out: “People expect that, with certain price tags, you need to be a machine. Sometimes it’s difficult to understand that we are normal people who have our own problems off the pitch. We have worse and better phases in our lives.”
He worked with a psychologist to try to help him through his struggles, admitting: “Confidence is the most important thing. You miss it when you struggle, but it flows when you thrive. I’ve worked a lot on this, to stabilise those moments.”
Certain he could improve, he knuckled down in training and eventually seized his chance when it was given.
Towards the end of the 2023-24 season, Pochettino tinkered with Chelsea’s formation and successfully deployed Cucurella in a midfield role, drawing praise from observers such as Nick Purewal in The Standard, who said: “Cucurella’s ability in possession, to act as an auxiliary pivot and progress the ball has transformed Chelsea.”
The player himself had some fun on social media in the summer (right) when, with a nod to the chant Brighton fans conjured up during his time at the Amex, he filmed himself with a bottle of Estrella and sang the song… “he drinks Estrella, eats paella…” but his normally “massive” hair was neatly matted down!
In parallel lines 